Viva Las Vegas

Before we get to Vegas I would liketo detour to our National Parks Day where, in the space of a day, we saw the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest (forest being a misnomer. This was the desert. There were no trees and petrified refers to old bits of wood lying about) and the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon was quite large. Very large. But because it's so big and it was way too hot to consider going down into it. Ultimately it really felt inaccessible and surreal. And because I havea mild fear of heights I spent most of my time trying to go to the edge without actually going to the edge. All photos have me looking vaguely petrified. Sarah did quite well considering she doesn't like nature.

Then we got to Williams where we stayed on the old Route 66 in a motel that invoked its name. It was old school. Less old school was the fake cowboy show that ran every night. Discovered that we'd been on the wrong time for almost 2 days because hte last time zone was a 2 hour change, not one. That was a bit weird.

Headed to Vegas the next day. Stayed at the Riviera which is where they shot the film 'Casino'. It was very old school. Went and saw 'Ka' which is a Cirque show. I don't think it needs to be said, but it was amazing. That was at the MGM Grand. We also went into a focus group for a TV show. In the feedback section I had no choice but to let them know I was very dsappointed with the blatant sexism, the perpetuation of the unattractive man/gorgeous woman syndrome and the fact that it was significantly worse than the BBC version of the same show, which I never really liked anyway. But I still got a half price Haagen Daas ice cream.

Had dinner at the Ballagio one night. Discovered that pokies aren't that much fun after a while. If you only play the penny ones, you never win much money and if you platy the dollar ones your money goes away too quickly. Minimum bet for most tables were $5 and I am a backpacker, so we mainly just wandered around looking nice until we got bored and went back to our lovely, but reasonably priced, hotel room.

Saw the Coke store. And another MMs world. Discovered the best hotels are the tackiest. Won a toy playing childrens games, which I preferred a lot more than the actual adult gambling. Sarah went on the New York New York roller coaster while I wn tokens on Deal or No Deal.

And that was Vegas. No partying. Very subdued. But it's definitely a cool place to hang out for a few days.